What is Agile CMS?
Agile content management systems, often known as agile CMS, are a new type of headless content management system (CMS) with a primary emphasis on content development, creative collaboration, decision transparency, and multichannel distribution.
The evolution of the agile content management system can be attributed to rising customer expectations of consistent, perfect performance and experiences that span several channels.
Like the management approach from which it receives its name, agile CMS supports responsive content generation and delivery — adaptable to customer expectations and mobile design needs.
As a consequence, agile content management systems are rapidly becoming an essential component of multichannel, personalized, and seamless customer experiences.
In this section, you are going to learn how an agile CMS:
- Differs from other content management systems
- Increases the amount of collaboration on content creation and marketing
- Options for omnichannel deployment that are dependable and future-proof are provided.
- It improves the overall customer experience (CX) and makes the customer’s journey more personalized.
What does it mean, exactly, to be agile?
The term “agile CMS” does not refer to an officially recognized new category of content management systems (CMS), such as “conventional,” “legacy,” or “headless” CMS.
It is an innovative iteration of a headless content management system created with the flexibility of content and the user experience in mind.
An agile Content Management System catered to content and marketing teams working in agile content production environments.
Within cloud-based digital experience platforms (DXP), agile content management systems are frequently implemented as an essential component.
Before you can make heads or tails of the concept of an agile content management system (CMS), you need to have a firm grasp on what “agile” implies in the context of content creation and software development.
Where agile development got its origins
In 2001, a gathering of CEOs and pioneers in software development took place in Utah.
Although most of them worked for rival businesses, they were united by the same point of view.
The lack of flexibility and organic growth in the development process was harmful to employees, customers, and the creative process.
The participants came together to write and publish the twelve-point Agile Manifesto, which introduced a novel approach to leading and managing software development that focuses on breaking down large development issues into the tiniest and most incremental tasks that are feasible.
In addition, it emphasized being flexible and adaptable to cater to the ever-evolving and unpredictable requirements of the customers.
Agile CMS for content management and CX improvement
The agile methodology swiftly spread to other service firms, including designing customer journeys and creating marketing content.
Agile content management requires:
- Communication: Providing clear guidance and feedback to the customer and the team’s stakeholders.
- Chunking is a method of solving issues and completing tasks by reducing them to their smallest possible parts, which provides flexibility for reverse engineering or adapting to changing conditions.
- Collaborating means being open with one another and offering a variety of perspectives.
- Iteration refers to making consistent progress and improvements toward a final goal, which may or may not shift over the iterative process.
Each of these abovementioned capabilities goes above and beyond what a conventional headless CMS can provide.
These characteristics are ingrained in the most effective agile content management system packages.
The four distinguishing characteristics of an agile CMS
According to a comprehensive study conducted on agile CMS systems in 2021 by Forrester Research, the top agile CMS platforms may be differentiated from the rest of the competition in four important areas.
1. Nexus of content focusing on the user. All CMSs feature a back-end content center. In contrast, the content hub of an agile CMS is developed with the end-user, or in this case, the business users — that is, your content production, marketing, sales, and project management teams — in mind from the very beginning the design process.
Everyone inside your organization will have the ability to locate, access, and manage all of your company’s content, including the most recent versions that are updated in real-time.
2. Tools for real-time communication and in-built planning are included. The planning of a project and ongoing collaboration, feedback, and iteration are fundamental tenets of the agile process.
The most effective agile content management system bundles come equipped with built-in capabilities to help digitally assist this.
The CMS was designed with full integration of collaboration and feedback features.
Everyone can see exactly where various “slices” or phases of various project components are in the production cycle thanks to the tools used for project planning.
It is simple for managers to identify parts of a project that lags behind schedule or require additional resources to finish on time.
Everyone interested in the situation can access all relevant information, so there are no secrets or unexpected outcomes.
3. The flexibility of content delivery services. Agile may send material to a wide variety of existing channels, just like other content management systems (CMSs), but unlike those other CMSs, it is not dependent on any particular channels, such as responsive websites.
The Agile Content Management System (CMS) takes the agile method’s focus on downsizing and runs with it.
Your teams produce material in forms that are streamlined and chunked.
In the future, marketers, and content creators may reuse these chunks and mash them up to produce new or personalized material for customers.
Your content marketing is useful today for delivery on the mobile web. It is also developed and stored in a manner that makes it deployable tomorrow in an augmented-reality Google Map. Not only is this the case, but it is also the case that this is the case.
In other words, your material is more than capable of being delivered across several channels.
It can be used in any medium. Thus it will remain relevant.
4. Any existing technology can be integrated with the platform. The agile CMS is not a closed system. It is designed in such a way that iteasily integrated into the development infrastructure of any organization.
The greatest solutions are those that are hosted in the cloud and can be accessed through the internet.
APIs make it possible to include agile workflows in customer relationship management and delivery applications.
A bigger customer experience software suite or a digital experience platform can be linked with the leading agile CMS packages, such as the highly ranked Optimizely Content Cloud from Forrester Research (DXP).
It is a well-established strategy for increasing customer satisfaction and returns on investment (ROI) to combine agile content development with data-driven customer experience software.
The benefits of using an agile CMS
Your agile-managed projects may be delivered, updated, and chunked just how they were supposed to with the help of Agile CMS.
Even though it does not have a graphical user interface, the content management system (CMS) is designed to support project downsizing, data-based iteration, cross-team collaboration, current deployments, and future channel content delivery.
Here are some of the advantages of using an agile CMS:
Collaboration between stakeholders and strategic planning
It’s high time those silos were demolished.
Organizing your teams in such a way that fosters collaboration and agility is the first step toward successfully adopting an agile content management system (CMS).
You are already ahead in the game if you possess agile movement.
If not, consider beginning the transition to an agile organization and project management as soon as possible.
Chunking of content to allow for optimum customization and delivery across all channels
Agile is now employed practically everywhere, from the management of projects to the creation of educational programs.
The goal of using an agile methodology, regardless of where or how it is done, is to accomplish one thing above all others, and that is to partition an issue into several individual, minute jobs.
It can chunk creative content into smaller pieces, miniaturize existing content, and produce new content.
Customer experience-driven content delivery
Your entire body of work will be brought together in a chunked and modular format by using Agile CMS.
Your company’s marketers can now use data collected from consumers’ experiences to select which pieces of tailored content should be shown to customers.
To make a sale, you must ensure that you pitch the right product to the right person at the right place and time.
When your marketing team is anchored by an agile content management system (CMS), developing personalized and targeted pitches is much simpler than ever before.
How to integrate an agile content management system into the workflow of your firm?
Suppose your company’s current traditional or headless CMS is no longer meeting its needs. In that case, consider switching to an agile cloud-based CMS.
It is adaptable, encourages collaboration, and emphasizes not only coders but content creators and managers.
Agile Content Management System operates effectively on its own. Still, it functions much more effectively when combined with other cloud-based customer experience solutions.
Your marketing teams will have greater flexibility and control over your brand’s content in the now and the future, thanks to Agile CMS.
